On the Left, he is quite correctly criticized for his vicious assaults on the working class and the poor. And moreover, look no farther than Ronald Reagan for the wrong-headed Laffer's Curve that has brought nothing but trouble since its inception, and is no small part responsible for the Great Recession and legitimizing the foot stomping foot obstructionism of the Tea Party GOP as it insists on renewing tax cuts for the very wealthiest Americans (even though this will not stimulate the economy, and only further encourage a problematic maldistribution of wealth and the growing kleptocracy) at the expense of all others.

In total, Reagan's reach is indeed large (and disproportionate to the merits of his presidency) in the years following his tenure.

The cult of Reagan has also fascinated me because of its resonance with black conservatives. Stating the obvious: Former President Ronald "Welfare Queen" Reagan was certainly no friend of people of color--choosing to begin his campaign by speaking at Philadelphia, Mississippi on state's rights and thus cementing his commitment to the Southern Strategy and "State's rights." This is the root of my snicker at White American conservatives who proclaim their colorblindness, and at Black conservatives in particular, who defend all things Reaganesque.

Funny, White conservatives are somehow rational actors, but black and brown folk--and Liberals at large--are somehow not. Thus, my delight when I talk to Conservatives who honestly admit that they care not for the common good. Rather, their immediate concern is for their pocketbooks despite the cost to the body politic. In the era of Obama that level of candor is so rare, as we live in a moment when the Tea Party GOP largely travels with the false passports of speaking for "real Americans" and "fiscal responsibility." So special that honesty is, I always applaud it whenever such true admissions are encountered.

Professor Robert C. Smith, a fellow searcher who kindly offered drinks and sage advice to me some years ago, has penned a great new book on this topic.Conservatism and Racism and Why in America They Are the Same works through the ambivalence of black folks towards Ronald Reagan, and the racist roots of American Conservatism far better than I ever could. Dr. Smith's argument is sharp, sweet, and to the point.

In total, American Conservatism cannot help but animate the forces of White supremacy and racism because those are the first priors from which it is sprung.

In this book I systematically demonstrate the inescapable racism inherent in American conservatism. The argument unfolds in layers.

First, I show that ideological conservatism is everywhere and always the conscious and reflective defense of established institutions and ways of life. In the United States this has meant a defense of racism and white supremacy. The first conscious conservative movement in America emerged in the South partly as a reaction to the movement to abolish slavery, and the modern conservative movement in America is rooted partly in opposition to the Civil Rights Movement.

Second, the substantive ideals of American conservatism—limited government, states’ rights, individualism, property rights, and the prioritizing of liberty over equality—when applied consistently inevitably result in racism.

Third, I show that the ascendancy of the conservative movement to national power with the election of Ronald Reagan was partly based on the Republican Party’s “Southern Strategy” of exploiting racist and white supremacist sentiments in the electorate beginning with the election of 1964.

I am acutely aware that the argument will strike many Americans—and not just conservatives—as outrageous. Therefore, I approached the analysis and writing with unusual care. I spend the entire first chapter defining the terms of the discourse—conservatism, racism and white supremacy. The remaining chapters are thoroughly referenced and documented. By design, the book combines philosophy, history and political science.

This is first a book about ideas and how they can have consequences in politics, if they are linked to powerful, well-financed movements.

I excavate the ideas on race of the leading conservative and neoconservative intellectuals from the 1950s to the 1980s. The ideas examined, among others, are those of Russell Kirk, William F. Buckley, Jr., James J. Kilpatrick, Milton Friedman, Robert Bork, Irving Kristol, Edward Banfield, Nathan Glazer and Aaron Wildavsky. These ideas helped to shape the presidential campaigns of Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan, the two leading conservative statesmen of the modern era.

For example, Bork, the conservative movement’s leading jurisprudential scholar, objected to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He described the landmark legislation as “unsurpassed ugliness” because, Bork argued, the core principles at stake in any civil rights law are individual liberty and property rights; it was the freedom of individuals to do with their property as they wished, even if they wished to deny access to a BBQ joint or motel to other individuals because they were black.

Similarly, Friedman, the movement’s apostle of unfettered, free market capitalism, compared the equal employment title of the 1964 Act to “Hitler Nuremburg laws” because “such legislation clearly involves interference with the freedom of individuals to enter into voluntary contracts with one another.”

The book includes detailed study of the Reagan presidency and race related issues. Using archival material from the Reagan presidential library, I focus on affirmative action, the Voting Rights Act, the Grove City case, welfare reform, South Africa policy, and the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. I conclude the book by showing how the conservative movement and the Reagan presidency have had an enduring impact on presidential elections, the presidency, the Democratic Party, racial liberalism and the continuing struggle for a more racially just society.

A section of Chapter 8 on the ascendancy of Reagan to the presidency is titled “It’s the Ideology, Stupid.” President Reagan is a central character in the book, because he is undoubtedly the most significant conservative leader of the present era and one of the most significant in American history.Reagan was frequently accused of being a racist. Nothing angered him more. As he writes in his presidential memoir “the myth that has always bothered me the most is that I am a bigot who somehow surreptitiously condones racial prejudice… Whatever the reason for this myth that I am a racist, I blow up every time I hear it.”

In close, careful study of the biographical and historical records, I found no evidence that Reagan was a racist or white supremacist. It was Reagan’s principled, ideological conservatism that led him to oppose every civil rights bill enacted in the 1960s.

Reagan’s opposition to the Civil rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was based on the conservative principles of limited government and states’ rights. In California he opposed the state’s Fair Housing Act on the conservative principles of individualism and property rights, declaiming that the right of an individual to dispose of his property as he wished was “a basic human right.”

Reagan prioritized these conservative ideological principles over the human rights of African Americans to be served at a Georgia BBQ joint, to vote for president in Alabama or to purchase a house in California. In doing so, he clearly made conservatism and racism the same.

As if to symbolize this relationship, Reagan’s first campaign appearance after he received the Republican nomination in 1980 was in Philadelphia, Mississippi. Philadelphia was the site of the 1964 murder of three civil rights workers by the Ku Klux Klan. In his Philadelphia speech Reagan invoked states rights, code words in the South for the right of whites to oppress blacks.

The public, politicians and the media are often puzzled by the consistent failure of conservatism to have much appeal to African Americans. This book provides the answer to those puzzles.I decided to write the book shortly after Ronald Reagan’s funeral. In the long lines of mourners that gathered to pay their respects to the President at the Capitol in Washington and the presidential library in Simi Valley, California there were very few African Americans.

In the course of the nearly week long commemoration of Reagan’s life and legacy—where he was lauded as one of the nation’s greatest presidents—I was asked in the media to explain the absence of black mourners in Washington and Simi Valley. My explanations dealt less with Reagan as an individual or as president than with conservatism as a philosophy and ideology.

Ronald Reagan was not mourned by many African Americans because he was a conservative; the most successful conservative president of the post civil rights era and one of the most successful conservative presidents in the 20th century. Conservatism as a philosophy and ideology, I explained, are and always have been hostile to the aspirations of Africans in America; incompatible with their struggle for freedom and equality. Thus, very few blacks could mourn the passing of a man who was an icon in the cause of 20th century American conservatism.

In the nature of modern media it was difficult to convey this rather complex idea in a brief interview. I found that even in extended interviews it was difficult to fully explore this complex relationship between conservatism and black aspirations.

Repeatedly, I was asked: Are you saying that conservatism is racism? That all conservatives are racist? Aren’t there black conservatives? Are they racist? Are the millions of Americans who supported President Reagan racist? Are President George W. Bush and the conservatives who control the Congress and the courts hostile to African American interests?

My answer to most of these questions was a qualified yes. But the many qualifications and caveats left me, the interviewers, and the audience, without the kind of clarity one would hope for when professors are called upon to explain complex issues to the public. Thus, this book.

47 comments:

Wonderful insight and comments on the nature and orgins of conservative thought...

I shared a lot of the professor's views on Reagan and conservatism with respect to Black folks..

On the issue of the civil rights legislation from my vantage point I often viewed these acts as a failure and embrassment for white folks to have to be legally compelled and forced to treat fellow Black Americans with civility and basic human decency and opportunities...Of course the civil rights acts also indicted private industry and the free market thinkers because it was apparent when white folks were left to thier own devices they preferred exclusionary practices and segregation etc..

I have written a number of commentaries about the failure of conservative themes in Black communities. I simply have never understood why Black folks would parrot the failure of white constructs..

For me one of the aspects of my liberation and identity is the construct of the anarchist . I like to view my life as a authentic Black man freed from the ideas and constructs of another's views( liberalism or conservatism). This life view makes me wonder what did it feel life for slaves after leaving the plantation..I bet that was scary and great just like life is now for liberated Black folks wanting to distance ourselves from conventional mores and beliefs....

(After having printed out your words and underlying the more interesting elements of them......)

Do you ever wonder why in the annals of Progressive talking points the tale of "Ronald Reagan Went To Philadelphia Mississippi To Kick Off His Presidential Campaign - Given A Wink To The White Folks That Were Present About His Intent To Give Black Folks Hell"

This despite the fact that he attended the place a full 16 years after the murders of the 3 Civil Rights workers he was dinged for failing to acknowledge their spirits that had not been seltted - despite their removal from the "earthen dam" that their bodies were discarded in.

BUT WAIT, my good man Mr DeVega -

Why is it that the same "narrative makers" don't make note of the year 2008. The array of Democratic Party presidential canidates went to Philly........PA in order to have their debate.

In this "kick off", however no one crafted the narrative in which more than 180 Black men were murdered in the streets of Philadelphia PA in 2007 and their honor was not referenced by a stage full of Democrats.

To add insult to injury, my good man, then Senator Obama returned to Philly to do his "Race Speech" in which he warned America at large the disaterous outcomes if the nation "left Black people all to themselves in urban schools".

Funny how the notion of "States Rights" rings larger as a threat than does the notions of the implicit inferiority of Black people to create a high achieving educational environment without the "benefit" of White kids in the same school.

Do you see that as you "keep your enemy on trial" Chauncey, you can create a lot of "unity" among your fellow ideological travelers. As long as they don't regulate your antics, expecting EFFECTIVE RESULTS, instead of mere stroking of their ideological sentiments - you will remain in good stead.

You are forever the Black contrarian whenever Black intellectuals engaged in chatter about their adversaries..

Why is that?What drives this fetish of yours that needs to attack all things Black?

I have argued and continue to rationalize that you are a casualty of the pathology of white supremacy it creates wounded low self esteem Black folks like you who instead of defeating the pathology it has you eating your own..

Years ago I created a chart/grid which diagramed the 4 outcomes within the Black community that reacted to white supremacy:

A.Defeated :Hopeless Black folks unable to recover from impact/influence of WPB. Partner: Wounded Black folks always seeking validation unbale to affirm one's self critical of other Blacks as a part of beingC. Warrior: Conflicted Black folks always engaged in reactionary exchange with WPD. Authentic: Independent Black folks unaware of WP creators of authentic Black being and lifestyle, liberated and in a state of evolution absence any contamination of WP..

@Thrasher. You and I agree. That white Americans had to be compelled to give rights to all by their elites responding to pressures from the bottom up is sickening--yet revealing. Whenever I talk to Right wingers about race or justice I always tell them to enforce the law, simply enforce what is on the books and we wouldn't have any complaints. That is when they tend to shut up or start talking about limited government or some other nonsense.

@CF--I don't want to encourage you as that would be like feeding a stray bear in the park. It becomes dependent, hostile, and upset when you don't give it goodies. I do think Thrasher is correct: in more than one may you seem to be a victim of white supremacy. Very sad.

For the final time I am not a progressive or liberal CF. You betray your own priors when you fixate on that narrative.

CF is a dumbed-down version of Jesse Lee Peterson, a slavecatcher always on the lookout for anyone critiquing the very people who hate him the most.

Anyway, I enjoyed the post. I can say from experience that the Black conservatives who at least try to reconcile their siding with confederacy do so either 1) out of loyalty to rightwing Christian social issues like the homos and abortion; putting up with the frothing bigots is worth it to them in this regard, or 2) are clouded by "the government screwed us" turning into "I'm for small government, then".

The more odious among them either ignore the confederate history outright and rush in to join the stars/bars-waving, or, as is quite fashionable these days, attempt to reframe "Democrats" and liberalism/progressivism (whatever that is in their addled minds) using slavery and plantation imagery.

Mr Thrasher - When I read the works on the web sites that I have listed above and then close my eyes and play them back I hear PROGRESSIVE-FUNDAMENTALISM more than I hear "Black".

(This is important coming up so please "get this" Mr Thrasher)

The EVIDENCE of "Pro-Black" is not based on the INTENTION. Instead it is based upon your willingness to TRY A NEW METHODOLOGY when what was done with good intentions has FAILED to produce the outcomes that you desire.

You prove that you are not a PROGRESSIVE-FUNDAMENTALIST based on your willingness to diversify your theories in support of more favorable academic, economic and social outcomes in the face of the entire domination of favorable people.

Mr Thrasher - have you ever seen my little enactment of the hijacking of Black - per the video of the light bulb with the "Progressive Tenants" written on it? Then a cover of CHOCOLATE is poured over these tenants, thus hiding your core.

I also notice that I have my most fervent disagreements with self-proclaimed "Public Intellectuals". They ofter seek stroking of their own "brilliance" more than they care to make the "Least Of These" into the "UN-least of these".

Thus the 3rd point, Mr Thrasher. Who assaults the "Black Self Esteem" than a person who refers to Black people as THE LEAST OF THESE?By INFERIORIZING our people, people like you seek to TRANSACT upon our "damaged state". We are asked to bend our backs as we play along, in an effort to receive the pay off in the end.

The key problem, Mr Thrasher is that when you stoop as such your back muscles atrophy and you are not ever able to stand erect in the future.

WHO damages the "Self Esteem Of Black People" than do the Progressive-Fundamentalist Public Policy Advocates of today?

Show me the ORGANIC COMPETENCIES that have been built up over the time of your domination of our communities.

[quote]. I can say from experience that the Black conservatives who at least try to reconcile their siding with confederacy[/quote]

Oh Crap:

You appear to be a "get in where you fit in" - "Non Originalist" in your thoughts.

Can I ask you a question?IF the "Confederacy" is as you say - WHY would you want this force to inject medications into your body via Government Health Care?

If we look at the schools that Progressive-Fundamentalists have taken over with the promises of a fix - can you point to any ORGANIC COMPETENCIES that have been developed which have them, for example, producing more medical doctors - and other "Professional Service Agents" for the benefit of our communities?

Your perversion of "Smaller Government" is, in truth, a deep seeded FEAR that you have about having your STANDARD OF LIVING made into a function of what YOU and a cluster of like-minded people around you in your community being made into the primary agents that define this level.

You try to make "Nationalization" of Social Justice into a point of STRENGTH - the people making their voices known.

The truth is - Oh Crap - since you don't have a local basis of PRODUCTIVITY that you can point to per your control over the CONSCIOUSNESS of your people (I am not talking just racial group but people linked in THOUGHT) you then seek cover in the way of perpetual OUTWARD STRUGGLE for JUSTICE.

Oh Crap - we have massive human rights violations at the barrel of the gun and the tip of the knives that slice through the bodies of people IN OUR COMMUNITIES to-damned-day. In your own ideological bigotry you are loathed to promote these assaults as EQUAL to those conducted by the CONFEDERATES that you accuse me of taking up company with.

Why do you focus on the super-minority Black conservative instead of the DOMINATE Black Quasi-Socialist Progressive-Fundamentalist Racism Chasers that dominate all of our institutions?

You remind me of Cobb ( I once viewed one of his videos he reminded me of a brother trying to hard to be intelligent it was funny, when I pointed it out to him he banned me ..Same with TNC I opine on his video and I was banned all of you remind me of buffons, negoes wearing tuxes looking like Black hillbillies like Bush looks when he wears a tux...lol,lol,lol)

Not until you learn how to properly render a quote from your opponents. This is not a bbcode messageboard, get it through your dumb, conservative, slave-catching head.

As for using my retort as a platform to screed against "government health care", find someone else to coattail on that topic. The only "government health care" we have is the VA and Medicare, two institutions you dumb, dirtbag cons don't dare touch, for fear of losing the motorized scooter vote.

CD - you went and instigated a pair of Cobb's little winged-imps to raise their hands and call your afrodemic bluff with some hoodwink and a bit of bamboozle seeking to relegate your racism-chasing to the level of theological speculation!!!

Now what you gone do brah-rabbit?!?!?!

I need to see you reverse these novel rhetorical strategems and crush these impious imps like they were pestiferous 6-legged vermin.

@Thrasher. Be nice to Cobb. He honestly believes that he is intellectual, curious, and analytical even though he won't read anything that he disagree with.

@Ohcrap--be nice to Constructive. You know the brother is impaired by an odd mix of internalized white racism and protonationalist anti-black delusions (he actually doesn't get how the last part is operating at the core of his ideology).

@Cnu--I responded and tried to give them a big dose of shut the f-ck up juice. But we shall see. They are really deep in their sickness. Cobb is now off on some tangent about the Canon--he is very out of his depth--and defending the Right as the true standard bearers for American patriotism as embodied by Ward Connorly.

I am not your enemy.The enemy of the Black community is "Ignorance and Hatred" - a spirit that can occupy a body without reference to the color of his skin or ideological leanings.

Me "defeating" you - or vice versa - will do NOTHING to fix what my friend Greg speaks of as a crisis in the videos that I watched.

ONLY a management plan that mitigates these problems by having the ORGANIZATIONS that were founded to be TRANSFORMATIVE for the minds of the "Equal Human Beings" that walk through the front doors every school day is going to fix the problem.

I can't legitimately be "Contrariwise" to that which is NOT "Black" per its clear loyalties to its ideological entrenchment more than its interests for a course correction.

@Cnu--He is tedious, but entertaining. I just wonder how he sleeps at night with the crap thinkers who legitimate him. Now, he is on some b.s. about the counter-culture and the black middle class and the devolving of black people.

Yes.

I was watching some of his videos on Youtube--he really does live in his own multicultural box and assumes it has primacy over reality.

The words that you expressed in the video in regards to the pain that you feel about the condition of Detroit cause me to look past your surface attacks upon me.

I assume you are married. As a man you know that a woman who you know inside and out will some times say things to you that are actually a call for attention in some other area that you have not been attentive to her in. Your job as a MAN is to separate the words said to rattle you from the underlying issue that she is calling out for.

Mr Greg Thrasher - YOU are calling out against me as a cover for the pain that you have inside.

I heard from the mouth of Greg Thrasher - caught on video tape - some words that where disruptive. I saw that Greg Thrasher is not blind to the situation at hand. I am only concerned that Greg Thrasher doesn't yet see that the "CEO From Chrysler with an Ivy League Degree" is NOT the problem that the eco-system of Detroit has.

I was thinking on the way home, Greg Thrasher - that every CULTURE in this world was developed by MAN as a means of mitigating a certain set of dysfunctions and instead produce a more fruitful outcome for the masses.

Greg Thrasher - I challenge you, Mr Chauncey, Oh Crap and Mr Nulan to appraise where we stand today as a people. Make note of how the nominal control over our INSTITUTIONS by "favorable people" has not yet delivered that which was promised.

As the next grand step you come to see that HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT is the only way that this end that you seek will come to fruition. The INSTITUTIONS are critical to achieving this end.

Take Malcolm X at his word and see that playing the "Grand Football Game" that is the political system in this nation will only mean that the Black community will CHEER wildly when 'their team' WINS yet it will return home to a community where the LOSSES continue to mount.

You are not my enemy Greg Trasher.You slaughtering me - or me you - will not result in the victory that we both seek - despite our bifurcated methodologies.

You appear to depend on your knowledge that Chauncey and Greg are going to agree with you about Cobb's post that referenced John McWhorter.

In your indictment against Cobb you failed to even articulate a justifiable reason for your dismissal of his viewpoint.

In fact I am made more curious of the "Guardians Of Blackness" who spend so much time focused on the Tea Party and Sarah Palin as a threat to the Black community - when all of it corresponds so dramatically to the election and the need for Democrats to receive as much of the Black vote as possible to retain their power.

Beyond this, however, I am critical of ALL who place our community's salvation in the hands of the "American Political Domain".

As a friend of Naomi Kline and Greg Palast I expected you to be a bit more skeptical about the bill of goods that Black folks are asked to believe in support of the "Black Establishment Powers" as they put Black folks into play in their wholly political schemes that mean little to our community EBITA, Mr Nulan.

You have it twisted I never said you were worthy to by my adversary..I have posted you are a casualty of the pathology of white supremacy (american version)...I have found your constructs underdeveloped and full of the dogma of white political themes and platforms..

Your anger is the skin and vessels of another who have programmed and imprinted into your mind this equation of viewing and articulating reality visa their reference points..

I have evolved beyond that point you don't have a clue about your intellectual contamination...Your wounds sting others the pathogen of a underdeveloped cultural dna does that...

KCNulan Says:[quote]Since you haven't made a single.specific.concrete.solutions.proposal yet, you know I have scant little to squander on your antics.[/quote]

The "Denby Thrasher" Says:[quote]I never said you were worthy to by my adversary..I have posted you are a casualty of the pathology of white supremacy (american version)...I have found your constructs underdeveloped and full of the dogma of white political themes and platforms..[/quote]

My good friends Mr Nulan and Mr Thrasher:

Imagine that I, the unworthy Constructive Feedback, as a mentoree of your. In the case of Mr Nulan a local Crip gang member from KC in his Linux class. For Mr Thrasher a student damaged from the experiences of Denby High School in Detroit.

DO EITHER OF YOU demand that I as a young Black man from these backgrounds deliver COMPLETED SOLUTIONS TO YOU about the world around me before you will accept them?

OR if I as a VICTIM make a rant that is 100% about this "capitalistic system", "White folks", "Corporate Abandonment" and "Republicans" would this be sufficiently PLEASING to the both of you?

My point is - I OWE YOU NO "COMPLETE SOLUTION"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You have been previously PACIFIED by OTHERS without such COMPLETENESS.These OTHERS NOW RUN YOUR INSTITUTIONS that are failing your interests. You, having opened your legs without sufficient QUESTIONS ABOUT THEIR INTENTIONS are complicit in your present circumstances.

The Denby Thrasher says that I AM A VICTIM OF WHITE AMERICAN SUPREMACY????? Go listen to your video tape in which you talked about all of the "White Folks with Ivy League Degrees" (and MIT :-) ) who have failed you in Detroit. Why didn't you ever say anything about the FORCES OF INFLUENCE who promoted them into POWER per their channeling of the BLACK VOTE?(Does the Detroit Chapter Of The NAACP have any part in this Denby Thrasher?)

Either call me SUPERIOR per the heightened EXPECTATIONS that you place upon me as your perceived ideological adversaries or explain why you see those who are more compatible with your ideological viewpoints as INFERIOR and thus more pleasing to your sensibilities.

I decide how I relate to others you don't dictate for me how to define you for starters..

The Black electorate in any venue did not create the structures of goverance quite often in urban venues Black leaders are left with hollow prizes they inherit from old homes and tattered neighborhoods to public systems battered by the the expense of legacy pensions etc left behind by those that abandon the city..

Please step away from your pc walk yourself into your bathroom and stare at your mirror and observed what you have become and what you can be..

DO EITHER OF YOU demand that I as a young Black man from these backgrounds deliver COMPLETED SOLUTIONS TO YOU about the world around me before you will accept them?

My young brothers have already implemented a working - though sub-optimal - solution to their lack of employment/income/status/respect challenges Ronald. We therefore approach one another from a perspective of mutual and reciprocal respect as fellow travelers in a world not of our design, liking, or choosing.

From everything I've observed about you over the past few years, inclusive of the spineless pseudo-anonymity which I gleefully robbed you of at the outset of your feeble attempts at oppositionality and harrassment, I'm not seeing anything in you that's yet worthy of my consideration, much less respect.

All I hear from you Festus is a whole lotta anti-Black passive-receptive uncle Ruckus impersonation - incrementally gussied up across an expanse of blogger with a few Google maps and some associate's degree correspondence course in business jargon.

That said, do you have a specific, tangible question you'd like to ask, or, is this just more obsessive compulsive Ronald A. Barr exhibitionism spurred on by unmet psycho-social needs?

Either call me SUPERIOR per the heightened EXPECTATIONS that you place upon me as your perceived ideological adversaries or explain why you see those who are more compatible with your ideological viewpoints as INFERIOR and thus more pleasing to your sensibilities.

Can you articulate ONE "anti-BLACK" post I have ever made. You have access to 3 years of my blog archives to work from.

You see YOU confuse "ANTI-Black Quasi-Soicalist Progressive-Fundamentalist Racism Chaser" dogma with ANTI-BLACK.

You should not be so foolish as to confuse what is POPULARLY accepted as "Pro-Black" as being so.

IF this were the case then so many areas where you have hung your ideological "Mission Accomplished" signs would not prove to be so corrosive to our people's interests.

The truth is - there is an "Anti-Black Force" that is represented within the INSTITUTIONS in our community that are failing to DEVELOP our people YET which retain a great amount of IDEOLOGICAL UNITY among "The Least Of These".

[quote]The Black electorate in any venue did not create the structures of goverance quite often in urban venues Black leaders are left with hollow prizes they inherit from old homes and tattered neighborhoods to public systems battered by the the expense of legacy pensions etc left behind by those that abandon the city..

[/quote]

EXCUSE ME SIR

1) I said NOTHING about "Black Electorate CREATING" anything.

I said:

A) They BELIEVED the people who came before them and PROMISED a FIX IF.......the Black Electorate spent their CURRENCY - known as the BALLOT - in support of the rise of the MACHINE that now controls the INSTITUTIONS

B) Instead of CREATING this functional alternative that you reference they kept along for the ride - NEVER ASKING FOR "EARNEST MONEY" along the way.

Thus, Brother Greg - after you worked as the taxi driver for the occupant in the backseat who asked for a cab ride to Chicago because he had missed his plane and is due for an important meeting - the fact that he has now slipped out of the back door of your cab leaving you dangling - it is YOU who bought into his narrative so much that you FAILED to ask for money at each critical checkpoint along the way. YOU must be held as jointly liable.

1) I personally want NOTHING from you. What you have done thus far has caused much injury to the consciousness of our race, our ability to see our way through toward achieving our full potential liveraging our God given talents that are 100% EQUAL to all other human beings that hath been created.

2) You need to SUBMIT your self and all ideological leanings to a more TRANSPARENT system of governance that is DIRECT in its attempts at forwarding our community's interests in expressing the management ability to express:

* Engaging our own people as the key means of IMPLEMENTING this higher standard of living so that their COMPETENCIES for doing so will receive increase

3) Learn that your "Victories" in the "Ideological/American Political Domain" where Black folks were seen crying and cheering upon obtaining a "WIN" had NOT translated into a VICTORY in the "Community Cultural Consciousness and Competency Development Domain". The domain that suffers the BENIGN NEGLECT as our adults focus the collective attention of the masses upon things that are PLEASING per their present consciousness (ie: Ronald Reagan, Sarah Palin) all the while HIJACKING our conscious attention from the more important work with.

4) I want you to strike out AGAINST any person who attempt to hand you the ball for participation in the "Malcolm X Football Game" as you have learned that THIS IS NOT YOUR GAME to get emotionally attached to.

Do all of these elements, KCNulan and you will be a friend to YOUR OWN INTERESTS.

MY friendship (or approval) being irrelevant to YOUR ultimate outcome as a consciousness group and the fate that you will suffer with regards to your alignment with your "True North".

2) You need to SUBMIT your self and all ideological leanings to a more TRANSPARENT system of governance that is DIRECT in its attempts at forwarding our community's interests in expressing the management ability to express:

Thanks in advance for your pending specific guidance as to who/what I should surrender my radical autonomy to in hopes of achieving my potential True North - as opposed to this wretched M-LETS drivel now filling my benighted nappy head...,

Mr KCNulan - the fact that there IS NO entity in place that operates as the "Integrity Keepers" of the "Community Cultural Consciousness & Competency Development Domain" and thus PUSHES ALL operatives who lurk inside IS THE PROBLEM!!!!!

Those who have negotiated the your peoples EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENT & LOYALTIES in exchange for the HOPE that the gateway though which they were lead ARE THE ONES WHO NEED TO BE CHECKED!!!!

Having FAILED and having USED OUR PEOPLE - they think that they are going to be the UNCHALLENGED leaders of the NEXT INTERVAL OF TIME.

People like YOU will insure that they go unchallenged.

You prefer "Ideological UNITY" to the thought of erected a FRAMEWORK THAT IS GREATER THAN IDEOLOGY. You fail to see that an IDEOLOGY merely points to a collection of METHODOLOGIES to get to a certain end.

Those who promote these METHODOLOGIES as the solution for the TIME AND CHALLENGES at hand need to be constantly made PROVE their EFFECTIVENESS via the use of TRANSPARENT REPORTING TOOLS.

Today we have enough COMPLICITY that has been obtained - any who dare point out the failures (ME) are accused of being Anti-Black.

Those who sit in the SEAT OF POWER and allow an array of dysfunctional METHODOLOGIES to transpire because they are POPULAR are said to have the BEST INTERESTS OF BLACK PEOPLE IN MIND.

Surely you learned how to do linear algebra to calculate that "We can't continue doing this"?!

I DO NOT OWE YOU MORE DETAIL!!!!YOU have PROVEN in the past that it is not "A DETAILED SOLUTION" that is required to win your favor.

You merely owe it to yourself to demand INTEGRITY. Once these operatives see that you can be COMPROMISED - they'll not stop.

Back in Mississippi, 1949 the lead foreman of the "All White Jury" was heard saying the very same thing (the dumbest,most worthless spat I've ever witnessed) in response to the successful conviction of a Black man for the rape of a White woman.

The fact that the baby that was produced by the alleged "rape" came out with blonde hair and blue eyes and looking just like the Sheriff's Deputy that arrested the Black man who was put on trial was of no consequence.

When presented with a valid railroad ticket which proved that the Black man was traveling to Chicago by train on that fateful day the jury foreman of the "All White Jury" said - "The words on the train ticket were printed in all capital letters and since he is an English teacher in the local segregated high school and is a stickler for proper grammar so that none of his students grow up sounding like an "N-Word"...... the fact that "Chicago" was typewritten on the ticket as "CHICAGO" rendered the ticket inadmissible as valid evidence per his judgment.

Its good to see that you too are a stickler for proper use of punctuation and capitalization, Oh Crap.

I woke up yesterday with a thought that I should again revisit my interaction with everything in the universe from both the past and present..I thought about old friends, mistakes I have made lost opportunities etc..

I also thought about people like you who despite it all have value and bring something to the table ...I will proceed accordingly with you and take another look perhaps I wil discover something ...I am prepared to look again

[quote]I also thought about people like you who despite it all have value and bring something to the table ...I will proceed accordingly with you and take another look perhaps I wil discover something ...I am prepared to look again[/quote]

Mr Thrasher:

I AM NOT YOUR ENEMY!!!!!!

This past spring as I drove down Atlanta's "Rev Joseph E Boone Blvd" through intersection of "Rev Joseph E Lowery Blvd" on my way to take a picture of the crime scene where the HEADLESS body of a Black woman was found (hands cut off as well) I looked around and saw a morass of Black men and women standing on the corner. This corner just happens to be "the most deadly block in Atlanta" per the statistics.

Mr Thrasher at that point I vowed that the next time someone who CLAIMS to be "Protecting Blackness" asks me "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO BENEFIT THE BLACK COMMUNITY?" (or in your case "What is your worth?") I would take them to this corner and force them to first PICK OUT 3 BROTHERS and ask them the same question of INDICTMENT.

The "Indicter" is NOT prone to ask "The Least Of These" - "What have you done" because in his quest to HELP THEM he fails to see their untapped competencies and he knows that in his past indoctrination of them he only ASKED them to vote and protest with him as their main evidence of "helping the community".

It is not my WORTH that you are worried about Mr Thrasher.In my assessment you worry that my challenges of your theories will force you to alter your ideological tether points and the METHODOLOGY that you have INTENDED to bring forth the "Permanent Interests" for the community.

Tell me Mr Thrasher - as you appear to be a reasonable man - How is it that you set your guns upon ME (and Cobb) instead of the MACHINE THAT DOMINATES OUR COMMUNITIES - including Detroit?

Do you see the importance of having an OVERLAY FRAMEWORK FOR APPRAISAL? It would allow you to remain more steadfast in your demands that the leadership that you assisted to put into place PRODUCE RESULTS. RESULTS that everyone can agree upon despite their IDEOLOGICAL differences or sameness.

(Aren't you glad, Mr Thrasher, that I am a Black man with enough "Self Actualization" that I don't depend upon YOU to see "value" in me?

Just image if such a dependent person then got in front of a WHITE RACIST who did not care about you nor I yet he [the dependent person] needed affirmation and was crushed by criticism?)

It would allow you to remain more steadfast in your demands that the leadership that you assisted to put into place PRODUCE RESULTS. RESULTS that everyone can agree upon despite their IDEOLOGICAL differences or sameness.

What a "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride" of a stream this is! That Ron Raygun really sets people off, I need to try some of him on my own blog.

Herein, boy that one guy seems to have a lot of time on his hands, what is he in prison or something? Got quite a chip on his shoulder too.

I would dearly love to attend a dinner party with all of the commenters herein. If it can be arranged, I'd like to sit next to CNu. Thrasher should probably sit across the table, he has on occasion mistaken my habit of understatement for a lack of passion. I'm sure we'd get along though, except for that one guy, who's probably in prison anyway.

Thanks for your generous spirit, Thrasher, to me and that other guy. And blaming you was indeed a failure to articulate, that was never my intention. I think I was defending my natural style, which is to avoid confrontation. You may be sure that I am plenty angry about some things that I may seem calm about.

Tips and Support Are Always Welcome

Who is Chauncey DeVega?

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